Depending on how you define non-ridiculous, a stealthy illusionist is a very amusing build if you ask me.

Played a DB character who assassinated most of her targets by simply hiding in the shadows and casting high powered frenzy spells on the target, watching their horde of loyal retainers turn on their now crazed leader, then just quietly sneak off, never needing to get your hands dirty.

If you really want to go all out with this idea, you got to also get a good deal of necromancy going, so then your targets are subjected to a nightmare of everyone going around them going mad and being put down, only to rise from the dead and attempt to kill them again.

Keep a backup dagger for solo targets and you got a recipe for an assassin who can actually pull of the whole silent-invisible-ghost-ninja-assassin-thing, but have things be more varied than just sneak, stab, sneak, stab, repeat.---Living just for battle seems pretty sad, you know? ~Legault We're about to be destroyed by... ARTIFICIAL FLAVORING!!! ~Power Rangers

... and casting high powered frenzy spells on the target, watching their horde of loyal retainers turn on their now crazed leader, then just quietly sneak off, never needing to get your hands dirty.

If you really want to go all out with this idea, you got to also get a good deal of necromancy going, so then your targets are subjected to a nightmare of everyone going around them going mad and being put down, only to rise from the dead and attempt to kill them again.

Keep a backup dagger for solo targets and you got a recipe for an assassin who can actually pull of the whole silent-invisible-ghost-ninja-assassin-thing, but have things be more varied than just sneak, stab, sneak, stab, repeat.

That's exactly much what my Necromage is. Conjuration, illusion, restoration, sneak(right side only), alchemy and started to add destruction(frost only) at level 44.---JAFO

Nice! I really enjoyed playing like that, made things interesting as my level itself far outclassed my fighting ability. So I would have to approach things cautiously and really feel like I was a lightly armed individual going against a band of blood thirsty marauders.---Living just for battle seems pretty sad, you know? ~Legault We're about to be destroyed by... ARTIFICIAL FLAVORING!!! ~Power Rangers

Well, I don't have a specific build in mind ever when I make my character, I do what seems like a good idea and run with it. However maybe you should try making a character that really good at something that they typically wouldn't be. Like if the race has good magic stats, do melee or archery and so forth. It makes me giggle when I see my Khajiit, who would be more suited to sneak attacks, taking on a lot of enemies head-on with swords and heavy armour. I did ended up sneaking around a lot to keep things more interesting, so she ended being pretty stealthy regardless although I always forgo the stealth for melee when I get bored of having to wait for the right position or for my targets to let down their guards.---I'm a dual-wielding Khajiit traveling with a jester who cheerily suggests that we go kill someone...I love Skyrim.

Create a merchant character caught in an imperial ambush trying to smuggel goods into skyrim. You have to play on master difficulty to make the wilderness feel threatening and are limited to these skill trees: speech, smithing, enchanting and alchemy.

Max out the Illusion tree. I came across a chaurus reaper with 2 reg chauruses near it. It was too high level for my frenzy, until I activated the dual cast perk for the 1st time. It worked! He began to tear the other two to pieces. I then calmed him, stepped behind him, and applied my elven dagger right up under his arse plate.